What a joke... Renaming this bland sedan is not going to help it sell. I remember sitting in a meeting at FWH in Dearborn when they introduced the 500 and Freestyle to us, both are built on the same platform. I remember the marketing manager asking us which one we thought was going to sell better. I remember thinking to myself, “nether, both are bland and boring”… That’s Ford’s problem, except for the Mustang and F series pickup BORING BORING BORING… The funny thing is none of the higher ups recognize this…
Ford to rebrand Five Hundred with Taurus name
February 6, 2007
By SARAH A. WEBSTER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
In a move publicly advocated by CEO Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Co. is changing the name of its slow-selling Ford Five Hundred to Taurus.
The new 2008 Ford Taurus is expected to be in showrooms by this summer.
An announcement will be made Wednesday morning in Chicago, a Ford official confidentially told the Free Press.
The name change is reminiscent of better times at Ford. After the Taurus was introduced in 1985, it became the nation’s top-selling car and many believed it revolutionized the way cars look and feel.
Ford stopped building the Taurus in October. After 21 years and sales of nearly 7 million, the popularity of the vehicle had severely waned, and the only people buying the old sedan were rental car companies.
Ever since he came to Ford, Mulally has publicly questioned the decision to kill the Taurus name and he has been critical that the value of the name was allowed to erode, as Toyota and Honda continue to reinvest in brands like Camry and Accord.
On Jan. 24, he told the Free Press that he was considering reviving the name.
“We’ve thought about that,” he said. “The Taurus brand, everybody has such fond feelings for it.”
The Five Hundred, which is built on Volvo architecture and unveiled in 2004, has largely been considered a yawner in the marketplace. While it’s praised for its big trunk, roomy interior and command seating, the design was considered a vanilla-flavored flop.
Last year, a mere 84,218 were sold, down from nearly 108,000 the year before.
Ford unveiled a new, more stylish version of the vehicle, which will also get a more powerful engine, at the Detroit auto show this year. That vehicle will be the new Taurus.
But taking the Taurus name and slapping it on the Five Hundred won’t likely save the large sedan, said Joe Phillippi, president of AutoTrends Consulting Inc., in Short Hills, N.J.
“I just find it almost laughable that they take a brand that they just killed that was so damaged and then put it on a car that's been struggling, and assume that the face-lift and modest improvements are going to be able to work some magic on the sales side,” he said. “Of all the brands they've got in their stable, to take one so damaged doesn't make a lot of sense to me.”
Indeed, the Taurus has the lowest resale value of any General Motors Corp. or Ford car or truck on the market, according to data from Automotive Leasing Guide.
The estimated resale value on a new Taurus after three years of ownership is 29% of the sticker price, showing how severely damaged the brand has become over the years.
The Ford Mustang, by contrast, has a resale value of 54% of the sticker price after three years of ownership.
A vehicle’s resale value is considered one of the primary measures of brand strength.
Given that weakness, Phillippi said, Ford will have to invest massive amounts of money marketing the new model and name change
“They’re going to have to spend a lot of money on advertising,” he said.
Of course, he noted, Ford would have to spend a great deal of money to support the Five Hundred no matter what Ford called it, as the vehicle is struggling in the marketplace.
Contact SARAH A. WEBSTER at 313-222-5394 or
swebster@freepress.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.